Inside the human brain

Controversial Body Worlds exhibit coming to Calgary
Calgarians have an opportunity to discover what’s happening in their brain when they learn something new, listen to music and even when they’re in love.

“Body Worlds & The Brain” opens today at the Telus World of Science. The exhibit showcases bodies and parts from approximately 200 people preserved through Plastination, a process invented by Dr. Gunther von Hagens.

“Three pounds of grey and white matter shape our ‘reality,” a sign reads behind a preserved human brain. As visitors tour the exhibit they will discover that everything they know, everything they’ve experienced and everything they feel boils down to the creation and location of neurons.

“The brain is the most powerful and important organ. It is of utmost importance,” said Dr. Angelina Whalley, Managing Director for Body Worlds. Through the exhibit, she says, “people get a complete understanding of themselves.”

In a survey six months after viewing Body Worlds, 10 per cent of respondents had stopped smoking, 30 per cent were eating healthier and 50 per cent said they exercised more, according to Whalley.

One Calgarian, Adrian Koegler, is looking forward to seeing the exhibit.

“It’s one thing to read about it in a book, but totally different to see it on actual human bodies.”

There has been some controversy surrounding Body Worlds, but, Whalley said it “has mostly been brought up by people who haven’t seen it, they have a different understanding of what the exhibit is.”